Health benefits by attaining the new WHO air quality guideline targets in China: A nationwide analysis. (1st September 2022)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Yang, Jun; Ma, Jinxiang; Sun, Qinghua; Han, Chunlei; Guo, Yuming; Li, Mengmeng
• Is Part Of: Environmental pollution. Volume 308(2022)
• Publication Date: 2022-09-01
• Subjects: WHO's new AQG -- Air pollution -- Cause-specific death -- Health benefit; Pollution -- Periodicals; Pollution -- Environmental aspects -- Periodicals; Environmental Pollution -- Periodicals; Pollution -- Périodiques; Pollution -- Aspect de l'environnement -- Périodiques; Pollution -- Effets physiologiques -- Périodiques; Pollution; Pollution -- Environmental aspects; Periodicals; Electronic journals; 363.73
• DOI: 10.1016/j.envpol.2022.119694
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0269-7491

Abstract

Abstract: To reduce the high disease burden caused by air pollution, World Health Organization (WHO) issued a new air quality guideline (AQG) on the 22nd September 2021. A timely quantitative assessment of health benefits by meeting these targets is a key measure to advocate and inform national and regional disease control policies. We collected daily major air pollution data in 315 Chinese cities from the 1st January to the 31st December 2019, and the corresponding annual population and mortality rate in the whole population of each city. Then, the mortality benefits were estimated when daily air pollution levels attained WHO's new AQG targets (15 μg/m 3 for PM2.5, 25 μg/m 3 for NO2 and 100 μg/m 3 for O3 ) in 315 Chinese cities and 31 provinces by using pollutant- and cause-specific concentration-response functions. In total, 134, 025 (95%CI: 92, 768; 173, 029) air pollution-associated non-accidental deaths could be avoided in 315 Chinese cities in 2019 by attaining WHO's new AQG targets, with 43, 800 (95%CI: 29, 945; 55, 616) avoidable deaths from PM2.5, 58, 070 (95%CI: 45, 333; 70, 714) from NO2, and 32, 155 (95%CI: 17, 490; 46, 699) from O3 . Cardiovascular diseases and respiratory diseases accounted for 72, 698 (95%CI: 46, 561; 101, 680) and 17, 726 (95%CI: 8603; 26, 925) avoidable deaths, respectively. Health benefits from reduction in air pollution levels were 99.26 avoided non-accidental deaths per million population at national level, ranging from 12.48 per million in Tibet to 166.26 per million in Hebei. These findings suggest that the compliance with the WHO updated AQG standards would save substantial amount of air pollution-related premature deaths in China. More stringent air pollution control and management measures are urgently warranted to reduce the disease burden from air pollutants in China, particularly for the worsening O3 pollution. Graphical abstract: Reduction in cause-specific deaths (per million) in China by attaining WHO's new air quality guidelines. Image 1 Highlights: Meeting WHO new Air Quality Guideline can save 134, 025 deaths in 315 Chinese cities. 43, 800 avoidable deaths were from PM2.5, 58, 070 from NO2, and 32, 155 from O3 . Stroke, coronary heart disease and COPD explained half of deaths from air pollution. Mortality benefits by attaining the new targets varied across cities and provinces.